Raniael grasped the finger of the apostate tightly and stretched her arm out. Reaching out, she seized the apostate’s shoulder, holding the apostate’s battered arm, pierced by the holy spear, in her grip.
“I told you.”
Crunch.
“Reveal everything you have.”
From the hand she grasped, overlapping spells burst forth.
The apostate’s finger bent and twisted. Dozens of strikes pierced the captured arm. Blood spurted from the apostate’s right arm, penetrated by dozens of thorn-like protrusions.
“If not, this will be the end for you.”
The apostate frowned in pain, shaken. Stilling the apostate’s arm, Raniael twisted at her waist. With her right foot firmly planted, she lifted her left leg, bending her knee as she pulled on the apostate’s arm.
Screech.
The apostate, still held by the arm, looked on.
She saw Raniael’s raised left foot, the sole of her combat boot shimmering white. The engraved spell on the boot burned white. Immediately after, a blinding flash poured forth.
Boom.
Raniael extended her bent knee.
Her straightened leg struck at the apostate’s heart. Raniael aimed relentlessly at the spot pierced by Destel’s spear.
“…Kuh.”
A handful of dark red blood spewed from the apostate’s mouth. For a moment, her eyes shook with the physical impact.
Crush.
With the shockwave that burst forth, the apostate’s body lifted off the ground. In that fleeting moment, the apostate heard something tearing. After rolling several times on the ground, she barely managed to get up. No, she tried to get up.
“…”
She attempted to rise, bracing herself with her hands on the ground, but she had no right arm. The apostate looked ahead, lying down. There stood a successor throwing her own right arm, which was torn off at the shoulder, up and down repeatedly.
“I swore I would deny everything about you, that I would trample all over you. I made that promise with Cardi.”
Cardi. Cardi van Armiel.
“Otherwise, it would have no meaning.”
With a clap, Raniael took a step forward.
The apostate lay on the ground, laughing.
“Really now.”
With her left arm pressed against the ground, the apostate stood up.
Staggering to her feet, she grasped her shoulder—the spot where her arm had been torn off. Gripping her shoulder, from which blood dripped, she exhaled deeply.
“How gentle you are. Both you and that person.”
Is she hoping for my salvation after all this?
Knowing she has no right to hope, is she willingly allowing me to dream such dreams? That dream is something she has longed for.
But…
The apostate, Gletus, still desires an end.
The time she lived as an apostate, her twisted beliefs whispered in her ears. Would she end it here? After running this far, was she still wavering?
The apostate’s gaze fell to the ground below.
Pooling there was blood—stagnant, filthy water. The blood of gods, and the screams of humans crushed by her own hands. A landscape saturated with an unbearable stench.
“…Ahha.”
The apostate let out a long laugh.
Laughing, Gleria Bel Armias lifted her head. She faced the successor approaching her directly.
“What do you want from me?”
“I told you. Bring everything out.”
Raniael clenched her hand tightly.
The apostate’s right arm, which she had torn off, evaporated into ashes. Amidst the swirling ashes, she slowly raised her hand. The tip of her raised finger pointed at the apostate’s heart.
“That thing you have.”
The filthy water pooling in her heart.
After being pierced twice by spears, the filthy water flowed endlessly. Raniael knew what that filthy water was.
“The curse you swallowed that day.”
The shadow that sought to swallow half the world was accepted into the bodies of three heroes that day. As long as they contained that, they could never truly be liberated. Raniael understood they would never be free.
…When she did not know about the contract, the black dragon Raniael hunted met its end as a disaster.
But now that she was aware of the contract, she could not act that way. She had to walk a different path than the Goddess of Ashes, who trampled everyone while knowing the truth of the contract. To reach a perfect conclusion, she had to do it this way.
So, Raniael said.
“Get rid of it all here.”
Raniael looked at the past hero.
“Pour it all out.”
The apostate merely smiled at her words.
Though she wished for an end by letting go of everything, there were things she could not let go of. It was a burden and a shackle she shared with her companions.
“You can’t handle it, junior. Please don’t trample on my consideration. This is something you cannot bear.”
“Who said you weren’t Cardi’s girlfriend?”
Raniael scoffed.
“You and that elf need to understand what being old means.”
The apostate scowled.
Raniael gestured for the apostate to look around. Only then did the apostate turn to see behind her.
Thud, Boom.
The falling giants.
There were those approaching, stepping over the corpses of giants. Those she had disregarded, living in a false era. Pointing at them, Raniael said.
“Are we at a stage where consideration is needed?”
“…How arrogant, you.”
“Surprisingly.”
Raniael shrugged.
“Rather, I want to ask you.”
“…”
“Can you handle it without taking that out?”
…Thus, the apostate exhaled.
She was exactly right, the successor’s words.
Without unshackling, she could not handle all of them. If she had fully opened the sky, if the holy spear had not pierced her heart, and if calamities had not fallen this quickly… she would not have had to use this.
If just one thing had gone as planned, she wouldn’t have to be in such a position now. But every plan had gone awry. Unexpected variables upon variables had cornered her.
In that way, Gleria stood at the crossroads of choice.
Would she meet her end this way?
If not…
Would she take everything out and struggle until the very end?
There were words she had to shout into this world. There was a salvation that had to be shown in this false world. She had walked this far because she desired it.
…It mattered more than her own salvation.
Even if she could not be saved, even if she failed to reunite with her long-lost dreams, it was something she had to make happen.
“Yeah, you’re right.”
The apostate lowered the hand that clutched her shoulder.
Tick, tick. The divine power became distorted.
Under normal circumstances, it would have ended here, but… the apostate slowly moved her hand, which contained the distorted divine power, towards her heart. Then, she clenched that heart tightly.
Creak, creak. Rattle!
Black lightning erupted from the filthy water. The lightning rumbled with the screams of humans. It was the curse of those who had become neither alive nor dead.
“Perhaps this might be better.”
The apostate smiled.
Just as the successor said.
There was no longer a need to consider, and she did not need to pity those children. They were children who had overcome trials and stood on the same stage as her. They were moving towards the place they had once aspired to reach.
“This might be better.”
Thus, the apostate knew.
The destination those children headed for, the conclusion awaiting them. The calamity that would repeat as long as the stars existed. The truth those children would eventually face amid that calamity.
“Your journey must end here.”
In that place.
At the conclusion reached after the trials, the First Saint knew there was no salvation.
“One of us is enough for such an ending.”
The saint smiled coldly.
Laughing, she lifted her head. What she saw above was a partially opened hole. Black raindrops soared toward the heavens.
The apostate extended her hand toward the opened sky.
In that moment, the raindrops soaring to the heavens froze. The giants, bleeding and struggling, froze. Belnoa and Lac, who were dashing through the gaps, as well as Chloe, who was chanting spells, even the Magol Dragon dragging Resti along—all of them froze.
Everything stood still.
Amid this stillness, only two guides moved.
A guide who forcibly obtained qualification by opening the sky, and the one chosen as a guide. Amid the same scenery, the two looked at different things.
“Open it.”
The apostate shouted.
The trembling, vanishing black cross was wrapped in lightning that soared from her heart. A hand seeking to draw down the stars shot up towards the heavens along the cross.
The black lightning forming a hand grasped the hole in the sky and ripped it wide open.
Beyond the completely opened sky, there was a view of the outside world. What the mages called the truth. Looking at it, Raniael exhaled deeply.
『Raniael.』
“Yeah? Speak.”
『…Didn’t I say we can’t let that be opened? I think you said something like that.』
“That’s why I said I would try, even if it seemed hard.”
『Are you sure it’ll be okay?』
“It has to be alright.”
Raniael smiled bitterly.
The plans had gone awry for more than just the apostate. The picture Raniael originally painted had changed too much from the current one. Therefore, she placed a bet.
“And, you know.”
Raniael looked at the apostate’s heart.
The heart that had just been pierced by the holy spear. Watching the two marks engraved in that heart by two heroes wielding the same weapon, Raniael smiled.
“I think it will work out somehow.”
Raniael, while stretching her arms, declared.
“I’ve done it once before.”
2.
The time that had stopped began to flow again.
As time flowed once more, the giants did not move. Thud, bang. The giants knelt and began to fall. As if they had been robbed of the life they once possessed.
So where did what was stolen go?
The blood, divinity, and power that drained from the giants all flowed to one place. In the midst of the swirling filthy water stood the apostate.
The completely opened sky.
The vanished cross.
The fallen forgotten gods.
Though everything seemed to have come to an end, the presence of the apostate did not fade. Instead, it grew even larger. Amid the overwhelming pressure that seemed to crush the surroundings, the apostate opened her closed eyes. Her eye color was no longer green.
Her blood-red eyes, symbolizing magic, glimmered.
The moment the lightning that surged from her heart touched the incoming filthy water, it began to take shape. The filthy water formed into claws to replace the arm she had lost, gripping her right shoulder.
Tick, tick, tick.
The black lightning erupting from her heart granted form to the shapeless filthy water. It pointed the direction for the filthy water filled with the cries of humans, a reflection of the gods’ despair.
Their screams, resentment, and curses turned to points. It was work that needed to be done as their master.
Boom.
With the colossal sound, the apostate brushed her hair back. She gathered her blood-soaked hair into a single braid. The hunting party that had been moving towards her halted, unconsciously holding their breath.
…What stood there was no mere disaster.
With an inexpressible unease, an instinctive fear crept up their spines, momentarily shaking their eyes. Had they ever felt such presence? That was no longer just a disaster…
“…Demon Lord.”
Resti murmured.
She had seen it. She had encountered that unsettling existence in Apuria, albeit faintly.
Demon Lord, Master of the Demon Lord.
An existence that stood on par with that emerged.
Everyone hesitated to act. Clop. The sound of footsteps echoed loudly in the silence.
“Continue with the operation.”
The operation’s commander.
Hero, Rania van Trias, shouted.
“Commence the Alkeia extermination, Chapter Two.”
Leading a procession of platinum stars, she marched towards the Demon Lord. Continuing, she spoke.
“From now on.”
Shrouded in shadows, facing the apostate with divine power, Raniael declared.
“Let the apostate extermination begin.”
